VERKLIN

Writers Memo I found this paper the hardest to write out of the three portfolios. Brave New World throws so much information at you that it is so hard to sift through the story and pull out exactly what you want to use. I wanted to make sure that I stayed on topic and critically analyzed the information rather than just telling the plot of Brave New World Over again. When I first picked my topic I thought I was going to argue that the more advanced technology becomes they more controlled society is. It wasn’t until I realized that the reason that it was the way in which technology was utilized did I feel my paper really got onto its feel. When I opened my paper talking about wikileaks, I could have wrote another six pages just talking about how significant wiki leaks incident is. I had to remind myself to stay on topic on just scratch the surface of the wiki leaks story even though I felt it related perfectly to my paper. When talking about social classes in my paper I noticed my experience in sociology helped me understand the World State’s society. I even was able to relate on of Marx’s theories to Brave New World and brought it up in my paper. I also brought up a reference to slavery which tied into my Civil War history class. It is nice knowing that some of your classes all have a chance to relate to each other even if it is in a indirect way. Overall I thought this paper was the most challenging writing I have done in any of my classes this semester. I think the finished product turned out well and was pleased how I contrasted modern United States and the World State. (your best memo yet - real metacognitive reflection)

Final Draft Word Count- 1902 Technology and Control- The Unexplored Relationship

In our modern world, technology (since wikileaks is your focus, specify the technology of the web) continues to advance and is becoming a more integrated part of society at an exponential rate. It has yet to be determined whether technology is expanding freedom and knowledge or restricting freedom and making society easier to control. This issue comes up daily in the news and there is no bigger headline regarding this topic currently as “wikileaks”. Many people are unaware that the internet was originally designed by the military. They wanted to create a form of data storage that if one area was compromised than all the other information could be found in another location. Originally called ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) this information sharing system later evolved into the internet. One golden rule about the internet is that once something is posted, it will be on the internet forever. Wikileaks.com is a site where confidential government documents are published and are displayed for the world to see. Wikileaks has published thousands of top secret files on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and on international relations. Wikileaks shows the true greatness of the internet and how it is able to spread knowledge without censorship. No matter what the United States Government wants they cannot stop Wikileaks.com and its founder Julian Assange from publishing more secret documents. Even with Mr. Assagned  in jail, the Wikileaks scandal has   gone viral. (brief details about the cyber war between institutions and "hacktivists") The government no longer can control what information is leaked out. It has become larger than just one man. It is ironic that something that was created by the U.S. Government is turning around and becoming its biggest nightmare.

(good connection here - why not cite from ch. 17 when Mond discusses censorship?) In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, technology is used to control and restrict knowledge rather than spreading it. The way technology was developed in the World State was strictly for control of society and not for the advancement of its people. In the World State nothing is in nature’s hands from conception to death, it is all designed. People live their pre-destined lives where technology places them in social brackets which are decided before they are even born. It is not the advancement in technology that controls society in the World State, rather it is the way that the World State has used it to limit curiosity and forward thinking. A good example is limiting emotion. Emotions are what make humans different than robots. In our modern world, when you see a hero like Brett Favre who has started in 297 straight football games cry about his father’s death, his ability to feel pain makes football fans remember that he is human. Soma is a drug provided by the government that is an effortless escape from the problems someone might feel in their daily life. It used for sex, relaxation and an escape from pain. One would think that creating a drug that has no long term determents to one’s health may seem like a technological breakthrough, when in fact, it has the opposite effect. To have a drug that provides universal happiness for its society is actually robbing them of advancing and creating curiosity. Soma is a key cog in the engine for the World State to eliminate sadness and make society continuously happy and to avoid conflicts. In Brave New World there is no poverty, crime or even wars. The World State society is centered on the theme of universal happiness which is an unrealistic way of life. If a conflict does arise then the answer is soma. The World State has taken humans and turned them into emotionless creatures’ void of any feeling. Creatures are easier to control than humans. Emotions can cause people to do unpredictable acts. To control society the World State needs to know what society is going to do. It needs predictability in order to flourish thus by limiting technology they are able to control its society by manipulation. Bobby McFerrin came up with a song that said, “Don’t worry be happy” and that is what soma accomplishes at the expense of what makes us human. (what happened to the wikileaks connection?) Through its advancement in technology the World State has developed a system to define its social classes. Or one could argue that if the World State can split its society into five distinctly defined sections than it makes society simple. It becomes somewhat predicable thus being easy to control and limiting freedom. The main problem historically with social classes is that the lower class always ends up feeling oppressed and tries to regain control from the dominant group. In sociological terms **this phenomenon is called the conflict theory.** There are a couple key things the World State adds to its social classes to avoid any conflict between them. First, social classes are defined at birth. Once a baby is born in the World State its social class is distinctly known and their education is predetermined. Betas are conditioned to accept that Alphas are higher than them but they are still better than Deltas, Gammas and Epsilons. If there are distinct social classes from birth it avoids conflict. There is no way to move up in society hence there is no struggle between the classes. If Deltas know they will never be able to be a Beta why struggle? Each class is content with their predetermined outcome. The World State eliminates any hotrod for conflict and instead, it creates a framework for a controlled and restricted society. Therefore, even though there is this advancement in technology it is actually limiting freedom in the World State.

To have distinct social classes there needs to be a way for society to easily identify who is in which social class. Hitler would put a big yellow Star of David on Jews during WWII, so the oppressed were easily identified. Skin color was the way Americans distinguished slaves from the rest of society from 1619 to 1789. The World State makes a distinction between its classes in two ways. First, each social class wears their own different colored clothing. Here is a quote from inside the Hatchery , (work for smoother, more specific citation style) “They hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky Group, it was evident) and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki.” The colors that they are dressed in are dull and give off no sense of emotion. The lowest social class, the Epsilons, all wear black which is described by Beta as a “beastly color.” Black is not a beastly color on its own, but since it is associated with Epsilons, it gets the reputation of a revolting color. The same Beta who described the Deltas, described the Alphas as, “Alpha children wear grey, and they work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever.” Even the top of social ladder still wears a neutral color as gray. The adjectives used to describe the Alphas really go to show how conditioning has affected the Beta. It shows how they are brainwashed to think about the Alphas. The second way to distinguish the social classes is the most permanent and life effecting way is oxygen deprivation and alcohol treatment. This technological advancement is a way for the World State to control the size and intellectual capabilities of its people. The Alphas are the largest in size and the lowest classes are the smallest. The fetuses are given a tiny amount of alcohol which negatively effects their growth and development. In contrast, Alphas are given extra oxygen so they grow larger. The impact of  physically   size plays a large role in society. This role is highlighted by Bernard, who is an Alpha Plus but is smaller than an Alpha should be. Some believe it is because of an accidental incident with alcohol in his blood surrogate. As a result of being smaller, other social classes do not treat him like an Alpha Plus. Genetically engineering babies has been a part of our modern society and has had some very positive results. Instead, the World State uses this technology to make babies, fit to form, based on their social class.

To have everyone in society be parallel and uniform they all need to be taught the same thing. That is where conditioning and hypnopedia come into play for the World State. Each social class gets conditioned in its own way to fit in with its niche in society. The conditioning is nonstop and people cannot even sleep without being conditioned by hypnopedia. After the conditioning, society is almost to the point of being brainwashed. Even the most emotional things, such as death, have been conditioned so society does not have any reaction towards it. The World State views conditioning as one of its highest priorities, this is proven when John is visiting Linda on her death bed. He shows emotion towards his dying mother and even starts to cry. While this is happening, the nurse at the hospital is getting mad at John for interfering with the death conditioning of the Deltas. John’s mother is dying and the one person who would have any sympathy for him, the nurse, is complaining about the death conditioning. This is absurd at such an emotional time. It just goes to show how conditioned society really is. It is almost like a science experiment, where John is the control group and the nurse and the Deltas are the tested variable. Since John grew up in the savage reservation, he did not have any conditioning so he shows an instinctual reaction to death. The Deltas are conditioned and have the complete opposite reaction to death. They start to make fun of Linda. It is a night and day contrast and just underlines how powerful the conditioning really is. Hypnopedia and  electric shock conditioning can be used for positive learning. Instead, the World State takes advantage of these two technologies and exploits them into molding its people into a predestined cookie cutter society. The advancement in technology is neither good nor bad. It is how that technology is implemented and utilized that determines the effects that it has on society. In Brave New World, it is not the advancement of technology that creates a restricted and controlled society rather it is the way the World State uses the technology in an effort to control its people. These same people agreed to secede their power to the World State just so the nine years war would stop. The United States and the World State may be closer related than it might appear. The highly debated Patriot Act was passed in 2001, which allowed government surveillance of its citizens without a warrant of any kind. It was passed opportunistically after September 11th and claimed it provided security against terrorists. U.S. citizens saw how dreadful the attacks were. We were willing to do anything, including start two wars, just to feel safer from the terrorist threat. Now in America, to get on a plane, people are required to get basically digitally strip searched with high tech machines. At some point, are we sacrificing our freedom and being controlled by technology just like we witnessed in Brave New World? As citizens of the United States, we need to take a stand to protect our freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution or Huxley’s World State may become a reality.

Works Cited Ballantine, Jeanne H., and Keith A. Roberts. //Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology//. Los Angeles: Pine Forge, 2009. Print. Barnes, Barry. //The Elements of Social Theory//. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1995. Print. Harrold, Stanley. //The Civil War and Reconstruction: a Documentary Reader//. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print. Hsiung, James Chieh. //Anarchy and Order: the Interplay of Politics and Law in International Relations//. Boulder, Colo: Rienner, 1997. Print. Huxley, Aldous, and Aldous Huxley. //Brave New World: And, Brave New World Revisited//. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Print. Huxley, Aldous. //Brave New World//. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print. Volkan, Vamik D. //The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: from Clinical Practice to International Relationships//. Northvale, NJ: J. Aronson, 1988. Print.

First Draft Technology continues to advance and is becoming a more integrated part of society at an exponential rate. It has yet to be determined whether technology is expanding freedom and knowledge or restricting freedom and making society easier to control. This issue comes up daily in the news and there is no bigger story regarding this topic currently as wikileaks. Many people are unaware that the internet was originally designed by the military. They wanted to create a form of data storage that if one area was compromised than all the other information could be found in another location. Originally called ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) this information sharing system later evolved into the internet. One golden rule about the internet is that once something is posted on the internet it will be on the internet forever. Wikileaks.com is a site where government secret documents are published and are displayed for the whole world to see. Wikileaks has published thousands upon thousands of confidential files on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and international relations. Wikileaks shows the true greatness of the internet and how it is able to spread knowledge without censorship. No matter what the United States Government wants they cannot stop Wikileaks.com and its founder Juilian Assange from keep publishing more secret documents. It is ironic that something that was created by the US Government is turning around and becoming the Governments biggest nightmare. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, technology is used to control and restrict knowledge rather than spreading it. It is not the advances in technology that makes Brave New World’s society so restricted and controlled but instead it is the ways The World States implements technology that’s makes society controlled. The way technology is developed in the World State is strictly for control of society. In the World State nothing is in nature’s hands anymore and from conception to death is all controlled. People live their pre-destined lives where technology places them in social brackets which are determined before they are even born. The World State has created a drug that takes place of people emotion. It is not the advancement in technology that controls society in the world state rather it is the way that the world state uses its technology is the reason the society is controlled. Emotions are what make humans different than robots. When you see a hero like Brett Favre who has started 297 straight football games cry about his father’s death, his ability to feel pain makes football fans remember Brett Favre still only is human. Soma is a drug provided by the government that provides an effortless escape from the problems someone might run into during the daily life. It used for sex, relaxation and a getaway. Even though this may seem like a technological breakthrough to have a drug that provides as an escape with no side effects and no long term determents to one’s health that is not the signifgance of this drug. This drug is encouraged to be taken by the World State to the point that is it unordinary for people at times not to take it. Soma is a key cog in the engine for the World State to eliminate sadness and make society contuinsly happy to avoid conflicts. In the World State society is centered around the theme of everyone being happy and life has no troubles. If in any way a conflict does arise then the answer is soma. The World State has taken humans and turned them into emotionless creatures. Creatures are easier to control than humans. Emotions can cause people to do some crazy things and be unpredictable. To control society the World State needs to know what society is going to do. Bobby McFerrin came up with a song that said, “Don’t worry be happy” and that is what soma accomplishes at the expense of what makes us human. In an organized society there are always going to be social classes. The World State has turned something that usually causes conflict and made social classes a cog in the machine to help control society. It is advancement in technology the way the World State has developed social classes. The five social classes, alphas, beta, deltas, gammas and epsilons, all are content with their place in the social pyramid. If the World State can split its whole society into five distinctly defined sections than it makes society simple thus being easy to control. The main problems historically with social classes the lower class always ends up feeling oppressed and tries to regain control from the dominant group. In sociological terms this phenomenon is called the conflict theory. There are a couple key things the World State adds to its social classes to avoid any conflict between them. First socially classes are defined at birth. Once a baby is born in the World State its socially class is distinctly defined and there education is based on their social class. Betas are conditioned to accept that alphas are better than them but they are still better than deltas, gammas and epsilons. If there are distinct define social classes from birth and there is no way to move up in society than there is no struggle between the classes. If deltas know they will never be able to be a beta why struggle? Each class is content with where they are in society. The World State makes a element of society that is a hotrod for conflict and creates it to be framework for a controlled and restricted society.

Annotated Bibliography

Hsiung, James Chieh. //Anarchy and Order: the Interplay of Politics and Law in International Relations//. Boulder, Colo: Rienner, 1997. Print Hsiung focuses on International Relations in a five part book. From focusing on sovereignty to systematic order Hsiung cover a variety of topics. One of his mail points is that international relations are a circle and there always is someone on the outside looking in. Hsiung looks at both ends of each spectrum from anarchy to order and dives into the distinct advantages and disadvantages. He focus on the rise of the community and how society transitions into having governments. People gave up some of their freedom during anarchy in exchange for safety and protection.

Volkan, Vamik D. //The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: from Clinical Practice to International Relationships//. Northvale, NJ: J. Aronson, 1988. Print. Volkan focuses on understanding what goes on between two nations and there international relations. He dives into depth of what goes on behind the scenes and how having a common enemy can result into two nations becoming the closest of friends. Volkan address the need to have both enemies and allies and what role each plays during relations. He explains what happens when conflicts due arise and when other nations are forced to pick sides. Sometimes not acting at all can be seen as turning against another nation.

media type="youtube" key="y1-iiYRe5KE?fs=1" height="385" width="640" The video above is a good educational video on the role of technology is our modern society. The control of technology maybe fictional in BRAVE NEW WORLD but in this video technology is greatly impacting our modern lives. We forget how centered our lives our around technology. Technology is supposed to be a part of our lives but for some people technology literally becomes there life.



**Use of Technology and how it helps direct and manage Society ** **Thesis- Social Classes is the most important technology created by the world state to control society **

P redestined from Birth/ Sleep conditioning

Lower classes get alcohol control at birth limiting their size and alphas get oxygen treatment making them bigger. Main way to separate alphas from rest is that they are bigger. n descending order they are named for the first five letters of the Greek alphabet: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. While upper castes are bred for intellectual and managerial occupations, the lower castes, bred with less intelligence, perform manual labor. All individuals are conditioned by electric shock and hypnopaedia (sleep conditioning) to reject or desire what the State dictates. Gammas wear green, Deltas wear khaki, Epsilons wear black,

Soma

Soma was a drug created by the world state so people dont have to deal with bad situations. They just pop a soma and everything is alright and they cant sit around and think. Soma is a form of medication that prevents them from showing there true emotion.

"..there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..."

"you do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma."

Malthusian belt

Is a form of birth control but also a fashion accessory.

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Important Quotations

“Alphas are so conditioned that they do not have to be infantile in their emotional behavior. But that is all the more reason for their making a special effort to conform. It is their duty to be infantile, even against their inclination. ”

Chapter 7

The door opened. A very stout blonde squaw stepped across the threshold and stood looking at the strangers staring incredulously, her mouth open. Lenina noticed with disgust that two of the front teeth were missing. And the colour of the ones that remained … She shuddered. It was worse than the old man. So fat. And all the lines in her face, the flabbiness, the wrinkles. And the sagging cheeks, with those purplish blotches. And the red veins on her nose, the bloodshot eyes. And that neck–that neck; and the blanket she wore over her head–ragged and filthy. And under the brown sack-shaped tunic those enormous breasts, the bulge of the stomach, the hips. Oh, much worse than the old man, much worse! And suddenly the creature burst out in a torrent of speech, rushed at her with outstretched arms and–Ford! Ford! it was too revolting, in another moment she'd be sick–pressed her against the bulge, the bosom, and began to kiss her. Ford! to kiss, slobberingly, and smelt too horrible, obviously never had a bath, and simply reeked of that beastly stuff that was put into Delta and Epsilon bottles (no, it wasn't true about Bernard), positively stank of alcohol. She broke away as quickly as she could.

Chapter 14

He felt the hot tears welling up behind his eyelids as he recalled the words and Linda's voice as she repeated them. And then the reading lessons: The tot is in the pot, the cat is on the mat; and the Elementary Instructions for Beta Workers in the Embryo Store. And long evenings by the fire or, in summertime, on the roof of the little house, when she told him those stories about the Other Place, outside the Reservation: that beautiful, beautiful Other Place, whose memory, as of a heaven, a paradise of goodness and loveliness, he still kept whole and intact, undefiled by contact with the reality of this real London, these actual civilized men and women.

And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is. -